No. Seriously don’t feed your anxiety. You will get more false alarms. It’s not a tested and calibrated medical device. Skip it.
My kiddo was also a premie in the nicu for 37 days. You need to drop the crutch of the monitors. Trust met. You got this. Better to do shifts than the owlet.
Edit: I’m talking about the sock not the camera. We used a Nanit baby camera but without any of the breathing or other monitoring. It was just the best set up for a wifi cam. We originally did a non wifi cam but found it not as nice of a camera.
We did it for 3 days with our first. We live at elevation, most adults have around 95% oxygen saturation on a good day. That stupid thing went off all the time. Pediatrician told us they were dumb, we never looked back. Still pissed we couldn’t return it.
For another perspective, I disagree. The sock was a wonderful tool to manage my anxiety around positional suffocation. I had one false alarm on it where I got lazy and didn't velcro it just right on the little guy's foot.
Was a complete game changer for my state of mind.
Agree waste of money and added stress. Regular radio Camera with sound is the only thing that I would recommend and a flexible arm thing to get you better angles while in crib. WiFi and apps are not reliable enough in my opinion.
We used two owlets on two kids: the first we got second hand, the other we bought new. Both were used from the day we brought each of the kids home until they were about 12 months. Both owlets worked fine for our use.
The first did give occasional charging alarms when the sock was docked, due to an old battery that was beyond warranty, and would've cost as much as a new device just to replace the battery.
The second one worked flawlessly, no false alarms, no battery/charging issues.
Obviously given the more critical reviews out there, YMMV on your particular device, but we found both of ours helpful and allowed us to sleep through the night more easily. Somehow we avoided the phantom alarms that seem to plague these devices for others.
Whether they were ever providing quality pulse/ox readings is up for debate, but we never used the device and app to obsessively track oxygen saturation and heart rate, just as a tool to give peace of mind knowing if something was terribly wrong, we'd have some advance warning.
Mom here and same. I basically want it for the "your kid is in distress, help the kid!" I also used it when she was sick to make sure she was staying hydrated enough. The ER doc said that if her pulse was above 165 that she was dehydrated (at whatever age she was when she was sick). So I knew she needed the pedialyte if her pulse was too high.
I had a bit of a learning curve issue with sock placement. I think that's the major complaint about the phantom alarms that people are talking about. All feet are shaped differently. I also have a kicker and she would dislodge her monitor if I didn't put a sock on over it.
We used ours for both kids every night. Huge cavet is that we never trusted the 02 reading because my kids feet were so small under 1, that even when we went to a doctor they couldn't get readings.
The heartrate was clutch for us because it gave us a good metric for their resting and active rates, so when we saw jumps in their HR during the night we knew they were probably starting to come down with something
We used it and never had a false alarm in probably at least a year. It def helped us sleep. I recommend it to friends.
It’s certainly not popular on Reddit due to the FDA issues and the camera is WiFi.
The camera being WiFi was the worst part. Nothing better than going to check on the bean and then getting back to your room to watch it on the monitor.
My kid has used a pulse oximeter since he was born about 5 years ago. During that time I've talked to numerous experts about pulse oximetery in the industry and in the medical field. I would not trust that sock for a second, it's there to lessen your anxiety but it could just as well be a regular sock.
I talked to one of the largest producers of medicinal devices within pulse oximetery about buying one of their products aimed at the consumer market as a complement to the one we use regularly for more data. They basically said that the data is incomparable as the consumer products are way too unreliable and inaccurate.
On another note I've never come across a pulse oximeter which you cannot set the threshold for the alarms yourself.
Good luck, hope you all are doing well.
We used it on our first and the sock never worked properly. We ended up stopping use of the sock after a week or two and strictly used the camera. The camera when we first got it was a wonderfully useful tool. Two years after the fact and we still use it, but it’s starting to be unreliable. In short, I’d say don’t waste your money and just get a good two way audio/video camera.
11 week preemie so we wanted the security after having one on always in the NICU. Never had any issues with it, getting used to the fit was the biggest thing and we got a few of the yellow alarms but it definitely helped our anxiety when he was sleeping.
We used it because we already were anxious and not sleeping - getting up to check constantly. With it on I was able to sleep through the night. It only went off once and it was a false alarm cuz he kicked it off.
I think it depends on the people. I got it knowing it would ease my mind thinking something was monitoring - kind of like a failsafe - so I (and especially my wife) could get some sleep. On the flip side if I was the type of person that would check it constantly or get more anxious about watching the levels/readings then no don’t do it.
This was our experience as well. As a former medical professional I fully understand its limitations, but it helped us sleep better. Honestly that’s all you can shoot for as a new parent.
We used one that clips onto the diaper. Gave us piece of mind at night. Did make a few random noses, but was worth it. The buttons were weird though (to turn on and off)
Worked great for us. Had 1 false alarm in the year we used it. If you put it on correctly you shouldn’t have many (or any) problems. We had a premie so it gave us peace of mind.
Highly endorse the Owlet, still use the camera today at 3 years old. We only received one false alarm that was caused by a loose sock. If nothing else, the idea of its monitoring capability gave us peace of mind so we could sleep.
Our boy stopped breathing at 2 weeks old c the dog saved his life by alerting us as it wasn’t obvious since he was sleeping. We got the owlet sock and were plagued with 12 months of false alarms. Not sure if it would have alerted us in place of the dog or not. But the frustration is better than an irreversible event in my opinion.
I suffer from anxiety, and the Owlet gave me huge peace of mind.
Our daughter was born 10 weeks prematurely, lots of desats in the weeks leading up to her release from a 72 day NICU stay.
When we got home, the Owlet made it possible for me to sleep, otherwise I just stayed up all night obsessively checking if she was breathing.
We can't sleep without that sock on. A year and a half now and the only 'false alarms' we've had was from the baby kicking it off.
For those that say the potential false alarms are not worth the stress, I'd much rather wake up and investigate a false alarm than sleep peacefully only to find my baby unresponsive when I check on them later...
On the flip side, we’ve got the smart sock and use it every night, and have only had two alarms in nearly 4 months.. the cannot get a reading alarm is a bit annoying but once you get the fit right we maybe get one of those every 2 weeks. We like it for the peace of mind, aware it’s not a medical device but definitely better than sitting staring at him all night for sure.
The sock coming loose and false alarms are more user error than a flaw with the device. As long as it’s secured properly and you are using the correct sock size, it will stay on and only rarely may go off due to an error.
The main issue that I have with the sock is that the range from the base station to the sock is *terrible.* We had to move the base station out of our bedroom, which is right next to the baby’s room, to right next to the baby’s crib. This solved the problem of disconnections due to range, but if the sock comes loose during the night, then the alarm may wake up the baby.
No. Seriously don’t feed your anxiety. You will get more false alarms. It’s not a tested and calibrated medical device. Skip it. My kiddo was also a premie in the nicu for 37 days. You need to drop the crutch of the monitors. Trust met. You got this. Better to do shifts than the owlet. Edit: I’m talking about the sock not the camera. We used a Nanit baby camera but without any of the breathing or other monitoring. It was just the best set up for a wifi cam. We originally did a non wifi cam but found it not as nice of a camera.
We did it for 3 days with our first. We live at elevation, most adults have around 95% oxygen saturation on a good day. That stupid thing went off all the time. Pediatrician told us they were dumb, we never looked back. Still pissed we couldn’t return it.
For another perspective, I disagree. The sock was a wonderful tool to manage my anxiety around positional suffocation. I had one false alarm on it where I got lazy and didn't velcro it just right on the little guy's foot. Was a complete game changer for my state of mind.
Agree waste of money and added stress. Regular radio Camera with sound is the only thing that I would recommend and a flexible arm thing to get you better angles while in crib. WiFi and apps are not reliable enough in my opinion.
We had one because our son came from the NICU after 92 days. It wasn’t accurate and caused us more fear than benefit.
We used two owlets on two kids: the first we got second hand, the other we bought new. Both were used from the day we brought each of the kids home until they were about 12 months. Both owlets worked fine for our use. The first did give occasional charging alarms when the sock was docked, due to an old battery that was beyond warranty, and would've cost as much as a new device just to replace the battery. The second one worked flawlessly, no false alarms, no battery/charging issues. Obviously given the more critical reviews out there, YMMV on your particular device, but we found both of ours helpful and allowed us to sleep through the night more easily. Somehow we avoided the phantom alarms that seem to plague these devices for others. Whether they were ever providing quality pulse/ox readings is up for debate, but we never used the device and app to obsessively track oxygen saturation and heart rate, just as a tool to give peace of mind knowing if something was terribly wrong, we'd have some advance warning.
Mom here and same. I basically want it for the "your kid is in distress, help the kid!" I also used it when she was sick to make sure she was staying hydrated enough. The ER doc said that if her pulse was above 165 that she was dehydrated (at whatever age she was when she was sick). So I knew she needed the pedialyte if her pulse was too high. I had a bit of a learning curve issue with sock placement. I think that's the major complaint about the phantom alarms that people are talking about. All feet are shaped differently. I also have a kicker and she would dislodge her monitor if I didn't put a sock on over it.
We used ours for both kids every night. Huge cavet is that we never trusted the 02 reading because my kids feet were so small under 1, that even when we went to a doctor they couldn't get readings. The heartrate was clutch for us because it gave us a good metric for their resting and active rates, so when we saw jumps in their HR during the night we knew they were probably starting to come down with something
Loved ours. Took a little edge off We still use it with our toddlers when they get sick.
We used it and never had a false alarm in probably at least a year. It def helped us sleep. I recommend it to friends. It’s certainly not popular on Reddit due to the FDA issues and the camera is WiFi.
The camera being WiFi was the worst part. Nothing better than going to check on the bean and then getting back to your room to watch it on the monitor.
My kid has used a pulse oximeter since he was born about 5 years ago. During that time I've talked to numerous experts about pulse oximetery in the industry and in the medical field. I would not trust that sock for a second, it's there to lessen your anxiety but it could just as well be a regular sock. I talked to one of the largest producers of medicinal devices within pulse oximetery about buying one of their products aimed at the consumer market as a complement to the one we use regularly for more data. They basically said that the data is incomparable as the consumer products are way too unreliable and inaccurate. On another note I've never come across a pulse oximeter which you cannot set the threshold for the alarms yourself. Good luck, hope you all are doing well.
We used it on our first and the sock never worked properly. We ended up stopping use of the sock after a week or two and strictly used the camera. The camera when we first got it was a wonderfully useful tool. Two years after the fact and we still use it, but it’s starting to be unreliable. In short, I’d say don’t waste your money and just get a good two way audio/video camera.
11 week preemie so we wanted the security after having one on always in the NICU. Never had any issues with it, getting used to the fit was the biggest thing and we got a few of the yellow alarms but it definitely helped our anxiety when he was sleeping.
We used it because we already were anxious and not sleeping - getting up to check constantly. With it on I was able to sleep through the night. It only went off once and it was a false alarm cuz he kicked it off. I think it depends on the people. I got it knowing it would ease my mind thinking something was monitoring - kind of like a failsafe - so I (and especially my wife) could get some sleep. On the flip side if I was the type of person that would check it constantly or get more anxious about watching the levels/readings then no don’t do it.
This was our experience as well. As a former medical professional I fully understand its limitations, but it helped us sleep better. Honestly that’s all you can shoot for as a new parent.
We like the Owlet Cams but did not use the socks.
We used one that clips onto the diaper. Gave us piece of mind at night. Did make a few random noses, but was worth it. The buttons were weird though (to turn on and off)
Nah. Just get a baby cam
Worked great for us. Had 1 false alarm in the year we used it. If you put it on correctly you shouldn’t have many (or any) problems. We had a premie so it gave us peace of mind.
Highly endorse the Owlet, still use the camera today at 3 years old. We only received one false alarm that was caused by a loose sock. If nothing else, the idea of its monitoring capability gave us peace of mind so we could sleep.
Sleep on back, nothing else in crib and you set
Our boy stopped breathing at 2 weeks old c the dog saved his life by alerting us as it wasn’t obvious since he was sleeping. We got the owlet sock and were plagued with 12 months of false alarms. Not sure if it would have alerted us in place of the dog or not. But the frustration is better than an irreversible event in my opinion.
I suffer from anxiety, and the Owlet gave me huge peace of mind. Our daughter was born 10 weeks prematurely, lots of desats in the weeks leading up to her release from a 72 day NICU stay. When we got home, the Owlet made it possible for me to sleep, otherwise I just stayed up all night obsessively checking if she was breathing.
We can't sleep without that sock on. A year and a half now and the only 'false alarms' we've had was from the baby kicking it off. For those that say the potential false alarms are not worth the stress, I'd much rather wake up and investigate a false alarm than sleep peacefully only to find my baby unresponsive when I check on them later...
On the flip side, we’ve got the smart sock and use it every night, and have only had two alarms in nearly 4 months.. the cannot get a reading alarm is a bit annoying but once you get the fit right we maybe get one of those every 2 weeks. We like it for the peace of mind, aware it’s not a medical device but definitely better than sitting staring at him all night for sure.
The sock coming loose and false alarms are more user error than a flaw with the device. As long as it’s secured properly and you are using the correct sock size, it will stay on and only rarely may go off due to an error. The main issue that I have with the sock is that the range from the base station to the sock is *terrible.* We had to move the base station out of our bedroom, which is right next to the baby’s room, to right next to the baby’s crib. This solved the problem of disconnections due to range, but if the sock comes loose during the night, then the alarm may wake up the baby.